This Month in My Magazine Collection, or "How I Got Most of the Warren Mags in a Month" 2 2

[Axe Elf]

{continued from above}

Why thank you @oakman29, I figure if you guys are going to be subjected to my crowing about $20 upgrades, you might as well be entertained in the process.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes...  for just about any defect you can think of, the Upgrade Wizard had an affordable PayPal solution for it.

Welding shut a nasty spine-split on the classic "The Witch and the Warrior" cover?  No problem!  At least, it's no problem that $13.99 can't fix!

He even ironed out those long corner creases on the back cover for free!

In fact, it seemed like most spine damage could be largely resolved for $14 or less--like this "Ogre's Castle" cover based on a story we've already seen twice over in the Warren Magazine Reading Club...

Before the solution:

After the solution:

Front cover spine damage, back cover spine damage, it didn't seem to matter; the solution eliminated spine damage wherever it had occurred--and just like before, any long corner creases were erased in the process!

The Upgrade Wizard just happened to be having an after-Christmas sale on spine damage--buy 2 and get $2 off the third--so I went ahead and took advantage of the $12 discount price and had #38 polished up a bit too:

I was pretty sure the solution would eradicate the spine damage and creasing, but I wasn't sure what would happen with the giant half-inch piece missing from Cousin Eerie's head.  The Wizard said he had just the thing, though, and pulled a picture of Cousin Eerie out of his wallet.  Measuring twice and cutting once, the Wizard trimmed the top half of Cousin Eerie's head from his own picture and taped it onto my magazine before dunking it into the PayPal solution!  He really didn't have to do that, but the results were beyond my expectations--and he didn't even charge extra!  I just wish he hadn't written the price on the cover.

{to be continued}

[Axe Elf]

{continued from above}

"All right," I challenged as I looked up from Cousin Eerie getting a little head back, "You do good work.  I've always thought this was probably a pretty beautiful cover when it was first printed, but... just look at this..."

"Can you make it beautiful again?"  I made my eyes as big and round and baleful as I possibly could.  The Upgrade Wizard finally looked up over his glasses after examining the book front and back, and said, "Yes...  but it will cost you more than $20."

"Hey now," I countered, "I asked you up front what you could do for $20!"

"Yes, you did.  But you recognized yourself just how far afield of beautiful this book has strayed.  You have more than spine stress; you have a piece out of the spine.  You have nearly an inch of spine roll.  You have dents and creases and dings and dongs ALL OVER the 'beautiful' front cover, and the back cover looks like it's been stepped on."

I hung my head.  "Touche.  So what will it cost me to make it beautiful...?"

"Twenty dollars and twenty cents."

"What?  That's it?  Twenty cents more?"

"Do you want to see this cover clearly or not?"

"Well yeah, YES! I guess, $20.20 to see clearly it is!"  And I motioned my consent toward the PayPal solution...

...I thought it would NEVER come out...

...and then...

BOOM! goes the dynamite!

"OMG!!!" I exclaimed; "You're a miracle worker!"

"Well, I'm no @joeypost," he chuckled," but I have my moments."

I was still admiring my new #27 as the Wizard's brow furrowed.  "OMG...?" he queried; "Old Magical Genius?"

"Never mind," I dismissed him as I realized, "But now I don't know if I have enough money to upgrade some of these other issues," and I pointed to those still spread around the slab.  "Is there anything you can do for me on the cheap?"

It was almost like he had been waiting for me to ask.  "I can lick the ectoplasm off of that #88 for five bucks..."

"You... can do what?"

"Yeah...  There's always room for ectoplasm!"  And I swear he was already drooling before he hungrily licked the ectoplasm off of my EERIE #88, polished it up with a corner of the sheet over the cadaver, and handed it back to me.  I think I threw up in my mouth a little, but I looked at the book and I happily gave him the $5--even the spine damage and edge chipping were gone, apparently smoothed out by the Upgrade Wizard's deft sheet-polishing!

"NEXT!" he said, breaking my reverie.

"Um, ok...  this one.  Minor bends, tears and creases.  Should be easy."

"Still on a budget?"

"Kinda."

"There's not much to upgrade--twelve bucks."

"Deal."

And the solution was applied.

"Meh."

"Toldja."

"It IS better."

"Yeah..."

{to be continued--EVENTUALLY--but three issues are still soaking in the PayPal solution, and I will wait until I see the results before I post about them}

{In the meantime, I believe that BIG news will be coming tomorrow!}

{Any guesses?}

[OtherEric]

On 1/22/2023 at 5:03 PM, Axe Elf said:

 

{Any guesses?}

After Hours 4 is my guess, Help 12b wouldn’t be quite big enough for the hype, and I suspect if Eerie 1 or Heidi Saha sold it would have been discussed on the forums even if we didn’t know who grabbed it.  It could be House of Horror by that logic as well, but I’ll stick with After Hours as my guess.

[Axe Elf]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:22 PM, OtherEric said:

After Hours 4 is my guess, Help 12b wouldn’t be quite big enough for the hype, and I suspect if Eerie 1 or Heidi Saha sold it would have been discussed on the forums even if we didn’t know who grabbed it.  It could be House of Horror by that logic as well, but I’ll stick with After Hours as my guess.

You know me fairly well my Warren Magazine Reading Clubmate, but your knowledge may be only partial...

[Jayman]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:03 PM, Axe Elf said:

{In the meantime, I believe that BIG news will be coming tomorrow!}

{Any guesses?}

Full run of Famous Monsters of Filmland including variants! 

[Axe Elf]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:28 PM, Jayman said:

Full run of Famous Monsters of Filmland including variants! 

You dream big.  I like you.

But no.

[Jayman]

On 1/22/2023 at 8:29 PM, Axe Elf said:

You dream big.  I like you.

But no.

It fit your MO. 

[Axe Elf]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:22 PM, OtherEric said:

Help 12b wouldn’t be quite big enough for the hype

Now that you mention it, I never did actually post the scan of HELP! #12c after it arrived; just the 'Bay image of it.

So here it is:

Kind of a beater, but it fills the hole.

[Axe Elf]

On 1/22/2023 at 7:30 PM, Jayman said:

It fit your MO. 

Herd dat.

And yes, if I ever do decide to take a run at the Famous Monsters of Filmland run, it will probably be via one or two of the largest runs (if not a single nearly complete run) that I can find.  It saves SO much on individual shipping over the long run--and usually saves a lot on the per-issue price as well--so yeah, when I do fun run runs, I do fun runs.

[oakman29]

On 1/22/2023 at 5:22 PM, OtherEric said:

After Hours 4 is my guess, Help 12b wouldn’t be quite big enough for the hype, and I suspect if Eerie 1 or Heidi Saha sold it would have been discussed on the forums even if we didn’t know who grabbed it.  It could be House of Horror by that logic as well, but I’ll stick with After Hours as my guess.

House of Horrors would be extremely difficult to find. 

[Axe Elf]

As @OtherEric surmised, the BIG news is indeed my acquisition of a copy of After Hours #4.

It's not as nice as the first three I received from @Makmorn, but it's not terrible--and it fills the hole.

I actually won it in an auction on daBay, and I was really concerned, because there's a listing on there right now for an After Hours #4--but they are listing it as being equivalent to "Famous Monsters #0" and asking $2,500 for it!  So I was afraid that if some dolt saw they were selling for $2,500, they might get a wild hare to try to grab this one for $500 and flip it or something.  But no, there were only three bidders, and while I was willing to go a bit higher, just to complete my set, I landed it for a cool $145.50 from its starting bid of $100.

So that's the BIG news...

...but that's not the BIG news!

(...don't touch that dial...)

Edited January 23, 2023 by Axe Elf

[Stevemmg]

That was a fantastic buy at the price. Typically that would fetch $500-1000 if in a dealer’s inventory. Congratulations, it’s a tough one. 

[Axe Elf]

So are you ready for the BIG news?

Dang that's a wide book.  Pretty much uses the full effective width of my scanner.

I negotiated a price some $58 higher than the last two sales on daBay, but I was a motivated buyer--and it IS in pretty good shape!

So that's the BIG news...

...but that's not the BIG news!

(...tune in tomorrow for the further adventures of Axe Elf...)

[OtherEric]

[The Lions Den]

On 1/23/2023 at 4:47 PM, Axe Elf said:

As @OtherEric surmised, the BIG news is indeed my acquisition of a copy of After Hours #4.

It's not as nice as the first three I received from @Makmorn, but it's not terrible--and it fills the hole.

I actually won it in an auction on daBay, and I was really concerned, because there's a listing on there right now for an After Hours #4--but they are listing it as being equivalent to "Famous Monsters #0" and asking $2,500 for it!  So I was afraid that if some dolt saw they were selling for $2,500, they might get a wild hare to try to grab this one for $500 and flip it or something.  But no, there were only three bidders, and while I was willing to go a bit higher, just to complete my set, I landed it for a cool $145.50 from its starting bid of $100.

So that's the BIG news...

...but that's not the BIG news!

(...don't touch that dial...)

The most important issue of After Hours for sure, with what amounts to a Famous Monsters preview by FJA. 

Well done!    

[Axe Elf]

I must apologize.

It appears that our little midwest winter snowstorm over the past 24 hours has delayed the delivery of the BIG NEWS for what will hopefully be only one more day...

...so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are a couple more pre- and post-solution pics from the Upgrade Wizard...

$19 doubled the grade, from 4ish to 8ish!

And then there was this one...  it's not even really much of an upgrade, because the front cover is actually pretty nice on the copy I already had--but I hated the nasty top of the back cover with a passion!

And then I saw this listing, which has a much better back cover, but I don't think the front cover presents as nicely as the one I already had.  Plus it was listed at $45, which is kind of hefty for a minimal upgrade.  But they did offer free shipping, so I figured what the heck; I offered them $35 and they accepted!  So I don't know that I yet have my final copy of EERIE #17, but I now have two kinda mid- to low-grade EERIE #17s for a total of $80.

There is still one more EERIE soaking in the Upgrade Wizard's solution.  Apparently the seller has been ill, and has not been able to ship the purchase I made about ten days ago now--so who knows when that will arrive.

But I'm still hoping to unveil the BIG NEWS tomorrow!

[Axe Elf]

Thank you, everyone, for taking this news so gracefully.  I actually expected a lot more clamoring and disgruntled murmuring, if not even the occasional torch interspersed with a pitchfork--but other than one Like, no one has said a word.

Me, I'm a nervous wreck until it's out of the postal system and onto my bookshelf.

[OtherEric]

On 1/25/2023 at 5:27 PM, Axe Elf said:

Thank you, everyone, for taking this news so gracefully.  I actually expected a lot more clamoring and disgruntled murmuring, if not even the occasional torch interspersed with a pitchfork--but other than one Like, no one has said a word.

Me, I'm a nervous wreck until it's out of the postal system and onto my bookshelf.

Been there, done that...

Having this unexpectedly delayed several days was terrifying:

Edited January 26, 2023 by OtherEric

[Axe Elf]

On 1/25/2023 at 7:40 PM, OtherEric said:

Been there, done that...

Having this unexpectedly delayed several days was terrifying:

You do realize I'm too ignorant of any non-Warren comics to know why that would terrify someone, right?

I assume it's valuable?

[OtherEric]

On 1/25/2023 at 6:03 PM, Axe Elf said:

You do realize I'm too ignorant of any non-Warren comics to know why that would terrify someone, right?

I assume it's valuable?

First Buck Rogers.  Probably the single most valuable science fiction pulp, although I haven’t done a thorough comparison.